Affected animals have also been observed to behave as if in an automated farm environment. Chickens will lay their eggs in easy to access areas and sheep will attempt to remove wool from each other using their teeth. Cows have been observed to kill one (1) cow each week and roughly separate its carcass into strips of meat.

Hmm… makes me visualize the calves suckling at the milk cow udders and then spitting the milk out at the edge of the area, possibly into pails if those are provided. From a programming standpoint, it makes more sense for the effect to be limited to a particular set of livestock (no one thought to program in milch cows so they're always treated as meat cows and it doesn't know what to do with other animals) but from an "anomalous phenomena" perspective, it makes more sense for almost any domesticated animal to work. ^_^ Maybe the reason the humans get hunted down and torn to shreds is because the sheer terror makes our meat taste sweeter.

Brain death results in death, with the involuntary functions being shutdown as well as the voluntary. Animals leaving the area of influence should enter a vegetative state or fight like hell to get back, the way it is now, the scarecrow brings dead animals back to life

I actually noticed the similarity. Not sure how the two items would "get along", seeing as neither seems capable of direct communication. This seems to hate humans but endeavor to do what we want, whereas 962 likes humans but does things that most humans really wouldn't approve of. Certainly don't have a similar origin, at least going by my personal origin for 962. But hey, that's just my view.